Over the years, a number of hinge devices have been developed for the purpose of permitting the opening and closing of the doors of refrigerators and other cabinets from either the left or right side of the cabinet. Early embodiments of this concept enabled a person to select the side of the cabinet that would serve as a pivot axis. Thereafter, unless the hardware were altered, the door would open from that side. When it became necessary to change the hinge side, a screwdriver, wrench and other tools were needed to mechanically transfer the pivot axis from one side to the other.
More recent modifications have utilized a combination of springs and latches to allow the door to be opened alternatively from the left or from the right. An example of such a device is shown in EPO Patent Application W085/02647. This design consists of a double sided removable axle arrangement that permits the door to be opened from one of the two sides. In order to prevent an unintentional opening of the door, a locking mechanism is provided for each axle arrangement. This mechanism has to be released by the user by activating an opening button prior to opening the door. This locking mechanism consists of a multitude of elements which when in the closed position are interlocked. As soon as one of the locking mechanisms is released on one side of the door, the door could then be rotated around the closed axle arrangement whereby a cam slides into a curved guide while at the same time the central opening in the door area of the locking mechanism blocks and the release button is locked. This hinge design, however, requires a variety of individual components, causing its production and adjustment to be time consuming and expensive.
If such a hinge design is used for a refrigerator door consumers will have to change their habits with regard to opening the door. Such doors are commonly equipped with a magnetic lock, in other words the door is opened by overcoming the magnetic forces without any further actions being necessary. With the already known solution, however, the locking mechanism would have to be released prior to opening the refrigerator door, and then afterwards the door could be opened by overcoming the magnetic holding forces. In case such refrigerators are used by public institutions or in hotels then an instruction manual for opening the door would have to accompany each and every refrigerator which naturally could prove to be quite bothersome.